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From: Jeffrey Epstein [jeevacation@gmail.com] Sent: 7/11/2013 3:22:21 PM To: Subject: Fwd: (s) 7/11, Atlantic Council (Hof): Syria: Blackberry Diplomacy ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fabrice Aidan Date: Thursday, July 11, 2013 Subject: Fwd: (s) 7/11, Atlantic Council (Hof): Syria: Blackberry Diplomacy To: Jeffrey Epstein <jeevacation@gmail.com> You'll find it interesting. Warm regards Envoyé de mon iPhone Début du message transféré : Expéditeur: GBIU-MideastNews <GBIU-MideastNews@dentons.com> Date: 11 juillet 2013 16:43:09 UTC+02:00 Destinataire: "Cheves, Belle" >, "Gray, Alex" < » "Mahle, Melissa a "Seche, Stephen A." re, "Dixon, Timothy” > Objet: (s) 7/11, Atlantic Council (Hof): Syria: Blackberry Diplomacy Atlantic Council Syria: Blackberry Diplomacy By Frederic C. Hof July 11, 2013 A friendly discussion about Syria with a former US State Department colleague gave rise to a point | will not soon forget. "Fred, there's no time for policy deliberations about Syria or anyplace else. We live in the era of Blackberry diplomacy. We react and we improvise as best we can.” Anyone under the age of thirty reading the above would probably think, "Why in the world is the US government using the Blackberry?" Those who turned thirty long before the end of the last century— even those of us who try seriously not to be technological Luddites—wonder sometimes if the communications revolution and the 24/7 news cycle it has spawned will end up doing more harm than good to the progress of civilization and well-being of the republic. Those who have had the privilege and burden of working in the US national security establishment are well-acquainted with how hard it is to find time to think. This was true long before the advent of email and other forms of electronic communication. Although there may have been times when officials could contemplate great matters of state at something approaching leisure, those days have been long gone. Even offices created expressly to explore policy options stretching beyond a twenty minute horizon—the State Department's Policy Planning Staff comes to mind—routinely get pulled into the maelstrom of daily struggles to manage breaking developments through some combination of HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030211